The Army Brief: Army logistics; Newest deterrence triad; Data bundles of the future; and more...

Welcome to The Army Brief, a weekly look at the news and ideas shaping the service’s future. 

Future logistics. The Army is proud of their logistics capabilities, but they’ll need to evolve for the future, Defense One reports. Today’s operations are too energy-dependent and aren’t ready for the water crossings that conflicts in the Indo-Pacific will require, Army leaders said at conferences this week.

U.S.’s new tool for deterrence isn’t ready. A “deterrence triad” that combines Army special operations, space, and cyber forces has been described as the “next step in terms of deterrence,” Defense One reports. But while the concept was announced in August, the actual where, how, and what of the triad remains “a work in progress.”

More than video chats. A recent Army exercise at Joint Base Lewis-McChord wanted to test ways to distribute command and control—to, say, replace big command posts with small, scattered cloud-connected teams, Defense One’s Lauren C. Williams reports. What the team discovered was just how much of the Army’s vision of future warfare will depend on bundling a morass of data into a usable structure.

Psyops training changes to reflect Ukraine lessons. U.S. Army special operators have taken note of how quickly information operations have moved in Ukraine’s 8-month-old battle to eject Russian invaders, Defense One reports. And Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga, who praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “Churchillian effect of mastering the information environment,” said ARSOF has already changed its training pipelines to teach those skills.

Sign up to get The Army Brief every Friday morning from Elizabeth Howe, Defense One’s Army reporter. On Nov. 17, 1775, the Army’s Air Defense and Field Artilleries were born under the name of “Regiment Artillery.” The Continental Congress unanimously elected Henry Knox to serve as the “Colonel of the Regiment Artillery.”

From Defense One

Army Preps for 'Contested Logistics,' Works to Boost Arms Production // Elizabeth Howe

Logistics win wars—but not if new enemy capabilities can disrupt supply lines.

The US's New Tool for Deterrence Isn't Ready // Elizabeth Howe

The "SOF, space, and cyber triad" is meant to serve as an integrated deterrent, much like the nuclear triad.

The Army's Distributed Command Posts of the Future Will Need More than Videochats // Lauren C. Williams

Structuring data is key to the service's visions of Pacific-spanning operations and AI-enabled decision tools.

Army Special Ops Is Changing Psyops Training to Reflect Ukraine War // Elizabeth Howe

Even as some operators chafe at rules that keep them out of the fight, they are keenly interested in how Ukrainians are applying their U.S. training.